June 2010 Theatre Review by Lawrence Bommer
The Absolute Best Friggin' Time of Your Life
The
sharpest edge of Chicago’s comedy empire, Second City’s
second stage deliver their 34th revue with the falsely modest title
“The Absolute Best Friggin’ Time of Your Life.” Well,
it’s no surprise that it can’t live up to that much billing
but then it never expected to. There are, however, some cunning
sketches that skewer the ignorance of the Republican Party’s tea
bag know-nothings, a plump female trio called Bitches ‘n Gravy
(“We like food!”), and our capacity to rewrite our past in
order to generate phony nostalgia.
The entire thrust, in fact, of this occasionally insistent package of strident satirical scenes is that the moment is the only thing we can trust. When we live in the past or the present, we’re essentially spinning lies to avoid the only reality we ever own. According to a framing scene, an extra-terrestrial Scorekeeper sees through all our defensive delusions and fictional futures to what we really value. The proof, of course, are the monumental mistakes we make to get sex, serenity of success (none of them ever experiencing anything like peaceful co-existence).
Billy Bungeroth’s six-person crew of zanies are more than up to the sporadic inspiration of these hit-and-run depictions of all the varied ways by which we waste our lives. They depict bigots who blame everything from climate change to their failed marriage on Obama. In the most interesting scene our racial expectations are spoofed when an angry black nurse and her boss, a meekly apologetic white doctor, turn out to be opposite to the actors’ skin. The result is the kind of creative confusion that Second City has done so well before and will again. That is, once they can overcome their penchant for laughs generated by generic situations from stock comic characters.
This show will run until ticket sales are off or until further announcement at Second City e.t.c. located in Piper's Alley in Old Town at North and Wells, 2nd floor. Performances are Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 and 11 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $22-$27. To place your order call Second City at 312-337-3992 or visit www.secondcity.com. For more information on this show, please visit the Theatre In Chicago Absolute Best page.
About Lawrence Bommer
A
native Chicagoan, Lawrence Bommer has been an active free-lance
writer and playwright since 1975. For twenty years he wrote a
weekly column, "Opening Nights" for the Friday section of
the Chicago Tribune, where he also regularly contributed theater
criticism and feature writing. His work has appeared in
Stagebill, the Pulitzer-Lerner newspapers and The Advocate.
Mr. Bommer was theater editor for the Windy City Times since its founding until 1999; from 1986 a theater critic for the Chicago Reader (where he has also written for the "Calendar" and "Our Town" sections); Chicago Free Press, where he was contributing editor until the paper’s demise in spring 2010; Chicago Footlights, where he has been a regular contributor; and Plays International, where he is the Chicago correspondent. He has also contributed to the Hollywood Reporter, PerformInk, Screen Magazine, CitySearch, the Chicago Illini, Inside Chicago, Illinois Entertainer, the International Theatre Festival of Chicago newsletter, Plays International, CitySearch, Playbill Online, TheatreMania, CurtainUp.com and Chicago Enterprise. Mr. Bommer is a three-time finalist for a Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism in the "arts criticism" category. In 1991 he became a regular theater and, dance critic and arts writer for the Chicago Tribune. His commentary has also aired on LesBiGay Radio, WGN and on Milwaukee Public Radio.
As a playwright, Mr. Bommer's work has been produced in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Madison and, in Chicago, by the Organic Theater Company (Jonathan Wild [1979], Poe [1980]. Gulliver's Last Travels [1993] and by Lionheart Gay Theatre (Gunsel, The Tyrannicides, Killers and Comrades). Since 1976 Mr. Bommer has taught at the Francis W. Parker School and was a lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1969 to 1975 (where he received his Master's degree in English), as well as a guest lecturer at the College of DuPage, Roosevelt University, DePaul University and the University of Chicago. Mr. Bommer is a member of the American Theater Critics Association and has been a member of the National Writers Union and the Dramatists Guild.
Second Thoughts by Alan Bresloff
Every
time Second City e.t.c. announces a new show, I get goose
bumps. While the regular or what some call mainstage shows are
funny and topical, the last few e.t.c. shows have been
extraordinary. Second City over the years has become a special
place where people can walk in and forget all their personal or
business problems and just laugh and forget the world around
them. Their last few productions have been awesome, and guess
what? This one is even better! This cast of six
outstanding performers (some old and some new) take us on a brisk
ride through history; taking us back in time, when unemployment was
almost unheard of, when the budget not only balanced but we had a
surplus and all was good.
As in most of the shows at Second City e.t.c., the performers not only perform, but have written the material. Then a director, in this case Billy Bungeroth, attempts to make these creative, comedic actors listen to him and do it his way instead of theirs. What we see on stage may be what the director wanted, or not! It is difficult to know for sure, but I will tell you that what we see and hear is hysterical. The set hasn't changed much from the last production. The lights mean nothing, the music is very cool thanks to Jesse Case, and the choreography, although limited in amount is well done by Brenda Didier and Donnell Williams. The title of this show is "The Absolute Best Friggin' Time of Your Life" and it does take us back in time to a day when things were far different than today. Politics was as it always was. Sex was new and adventurous to teenagers. The economy was fairly stable and unemployment was next to nil. This after all was the 1990's, a time very far in the distance that by today's standards feels as if it never really happened. But it did!
The scenes are fast and furious and the six member cast is terrific. Newcomers Mary Sohn, Brendan Jennings and Tim Baltz fit in well with some of the "old timers" as they go from sketch to sketch bringing us characters who are familiar and comical. The charming Christina Anthony, having just completed a stint in "Studs Terkel's Not Working," is a powerful performer with a great sense of comic timing. Tom Flanagan, who has appeared in several e.t.c. productions, is very funny and has an uncanny way of making the simplest of statements comical. Beth Melewski, who is now doing her second show at e.t.c., is a delicious comic with something special that makes one keep their eye on her. It is often said that one of the key ingredients to making people laugh is the ability to not care what you look like as you do this. Ms. Melewski is a rare talent, one who can appear to be the "ugly duckling" but in reality is the "girl of your dreams," the "Swan". I adore watching her work.
"Absolute Best Friggin' Time of Your life" is almost two hours of non-stop laughter that takes us into our wildest dreams of the student with their teacher romance, all the way to our Senior Prom, the way we would have wanted it to be instead of what really took place. There are several great sketches and some that are just passable, but humor is in the eye of the beholder and we all have different funny bone stimulators, so we get to laugh at what we find funny. It doesn't matter what those around you laugh at, you must just allow yourself to laugh at what you find funny. If you allow yourselves to relax and just enjoy what you see, I think you will find yourself laughing for over an hour and a half of this of this 100 minute show. Ten minutes of non-laughter is time enough for you to order a second drink and then back to the fun! They say that laughter is good for what ails you! If this is really true, when you walk out of this production, you will be as health as a horse, because they will have cured anything which might have ailed you.